The Picture
by doctorwhofan12345
Summary: "I didn't have the courage to say it before but i've always hated that ugly picture that Leo hung up."
1. Chapter 1

The Picture

Chapter One

Piper walked back down to her and Leo's bedroom with a gentle smile on her face as she kept her hand rested gently on her still flat stomach. It had been a crazy day but it had all been worth it because now she could lay down on her so very comfortable bed and rest with her wonderful husband and they could just talk about their daughter that was currently growing in her womb,

And Piper had managed to overcome her fear, no matter what she wasn't going to leave her daughter or any of her future children motherless. No if, ands or buts about it.

The only thing that really soured the day was the fact that Cole was back. With any luck he would take the hint and realise that Phoebe didn't want him anymore and leave and Piper knew for a fact that Phoebe had already signed the divorce papers.

Piper stopped in the doorway of her and Leo's bedroom and watched as her husband was working on the nursery for their daughter, he was currently working on fitting her crib together and was looking at the parts with an intense determination and something that looked to Piper like anger.

"Need some help?" Piper asked with a teasing smile on her face as she walked into the bedroom and smiled down at her husband. Leo looked at her and Piper frowned, normally when Leo saw her he smiled but this time there wasn't anything just a blank look.

"Nope." said Leo as he turned back to the crib parts and started to put them together again. "You should get some rest it's been a long day." 

"Leo I'm fine, our baby girl takes after you remember?" Piper asked teasingly as she sat down on the bed. "You okay?" 

"Why wouldn't I be?" Leo asked as he didn't look up from what he was doing.

"Because you haven't smiled at me once? Because you don't seem to want to talk to me?" Piper offered.

"And god forbid I don't give you attention every second of every day." Leo muttered under his breath as he felt his own temper rising. Leo might be a pacifist but even he had his limits and Piper was really testing his.

"Leo!" Exclaimed Piper with a shocked expression on her face. "What have I done that I deserve that for Christ's sake!"

Leo suddenly threw the piece of the crib he was holding against the wall and Piper jumped off of the bed in surprise, shocked at how sudden that action had been. Piper turned back to Leo and was shocked to find him now standing up and glaring at her. "Leo…" 

Leo took a deep, ragged breath. "The picture."

Piper raised an eyebrow confused as to what Leo meant when suddenly it hit her. When Piper was under the influence of her fearless spell she had remembered admitting that she hated a picture that Leo had hung up and she remembered admitting that it was ugly and then she blew it up with her power. "Really? Leo I can understand that you might be a little annoyed with me for that but did you really like the ugly thing so much that you've decided to throw things?" 

Leo laughed and Piper raised an eyebrow. It wasn't the fully body laugh that Leo was known for nor was it the little chuckle when someone had said something that tickled him it was a small, bitter chuckle that Piper had never heard Leo make before. "What's funny?"

Leo looked at his wife in disbelief. "Do you ever think about anyone but yourself?"

"Leo!" Piper shouted, she was really starting to get annoyed now. "It was just a stupid picture!"

"It wasn't just a picture!" Leo shouted back just as forcefully. "It was-" Leo stopped himself and then looked down at his feet.

"Leo, what? What was it?" Piper asked, what ever it was had pissed Leo off so much that now she had to know what it was.

"When a person dies and becomes a whitelighter you have to leave everything and everyone you know and love behind. I was married when I was mortal remember? Well you have to leave everything behind except for one exception. You can have one reminder to keep, something you can take with you so you never forget who you were before." Leo explained.

Piper was looking at Leo as realisation was slowly starting to dawn on her. "Leo-"

"That picture." Leo interrupted her. "Was my mother's. She gave it to me before she died, she was sick. It was all I had left of her and it was the only reminder I had of her and the only reminder I had of my family and who I was before I meet you and you blew it up because you thought it was ugly." Leo said as tears started to well up in his eyes.

Piper stared at Leo in disbelief as horror at what she had done was slowly starting to creep in. "Leo…I'm-"

"I'm sorry Piper I need to go, I need to get out of here for a while." Leo said before orbing out.

Piper watched the spot where her husband had been in disbelief.

God, what had she done? 

End of Chapter One

**(AN, so I watched a Witches Tale recently and it wasn't as bad as I remember, I would still say it was a weak episode but it had some good points but yeah, this was inspired by that scene when Piper blows Leo's picture up and I wanted to see a reaction to that."**


	2. Chapter 2

The Picture

Chapter Two

It had been a long and unpleasant night for Piper, the baby had been restless and was moving like crazy inside of her, perhaps picking up on her mother's mood and she was now as worried as Piper was. The few scant hours of sleep she had managed to get last night had been troubled by nightmares that she did not want to think about anymore.

Even now she couldn't help but to continue to think of herself as a monster, how could she have done that? She had destroyed something that meant so much to Leo without a single thought about how he would feel about it. She knew that she was under a spell at the time but that little fact didn't do much to make her feel better, the spell was one she had cast.

Destroying that picture was her fault.

At the moment she was sitting in the kitchen and drinking coffee, she knew that it was bad for the baby but at the moment she couldn't find it in herself to care and that made her feel even more guilty because now she was so busy feeling sorry for herself that she was neglecting her daughter's well fare and she wondered how Leo could've ever loved her when she was such a horrible person.

It wasn't just the picture she had thought about last night but every bad thing she had ever done to Leo, if she had meant to or not didn't matter anymore because the pain and the guilt was the same either way.

She had recalled how many times she had blown Leo up, the very first time had been an accident, sort of. It was a month or so after Prue had died and she was still a little unstable and in a fit of rage she had flung out her hands when Leo had been trying to calm her down, she had only meant to freeze him as she had wanted him to stop talking.

When he had burst into orbs for a heart stopping moment she thought that she might've killed him, the entire world had gone grey and she couldn't breathe, when Leo reformed a minute later she had thrown herself into his arms and wrapped her arms around him, sobbing and saying sorry over and over again.

Leo had simply held her and told her that it was fine, that he knew that she hadn't meant it and it was fine. He wasn't hurt and she wouldn't do it again, it was all fine.

How many times had she done that since then? How many times had she blown Leo up when ever she was frustrated with him? She was an abuser, that was the only word for it. She took out her frustration on her husband and justified it to herself because nothing she did left any lasting damage.

How many times had she destroyed something of Leo's without thinking about it, the picture wasn't the only thing of Leo's she had destroyed in the past. That ugly crystal lamp that the Elder's had given them as a wedding present, she had justified it to herself by saying it was an accident, she hadn't meant to back Leo into the table and make the Crystal fall but it did and she had been happy about it.

And now that she thought about it she wasn't sure that it had been an accident.

What message would that send to her daughter and any of her future children? That it was okay to take your anger out on someone if they frustrated you? That it was okay to hurt someone so long as you didn't leave any lasting damage? That it was okay to destroy things the people you care about care about if you don't like them?

She was a monster. Leo had been right to leave.

When her daughter was born she was going to leave, her sisters and Leo would do better at raising her than she would. How would she ever be able to look Leo in the eye ever again? How would her sisters be able to? She needed to leave as soon as the baby was born.

Suddenly it was all too much for Piper and she bent her head down and sobbed into her hands, she couldn't take it. She just couldn't take it.

She was so distraught that she didn't notice Phoebe walk into the kitchen, she was holding her phone to her ear and was talking to her boss but stopped when she noticed her sister sitting at the kitchen island sobbing into her hands. "Elise, I'm going to have to call you back."

Phoebe placed her phone into her handbag and sat down next to her sister, gently rubbing her back to try and sooth her. "Come on Chicken Little, tell me what's wrong. Did Leo do something wrong? I'll go and beat him up if you want me too."

Then Piper's sobbing intensified and Phoebe raised an eyebrow, that had never failed to get at least a giggle out of Piper, maybe the hormones were really throwing her off it today? "Piper. Tell me what's wrong, it can't be that bad."

"It is! It is! It is!" Piper screamed, each time she repented her voice grew louder and louder till she was screaming and her face was bright red, Piper grasped Phoebe's shoulders. "I'm a monster! What could be worse than that! I don't deserve comfort, just leave me alone!" Piper then pushed Phoebe and she fell of off her stool.

Phoebe landed on the floor with a grunt and winced as landing on the floor scrapped up her hands, she looked up at her sister who was looking down at her form her school with a look of disbelief on her face. She looked down at her hands as if she had never seen them before.

Piper opened her mouth to try and apologise to her sister but all the came out was a chocked whimper as her face crumpled and she laid her head back down on the island and began to sob ever more furiously.

"What the hell is going on!?" Paige shouted as she stormed into the kitchen, going by the state of her hair and the fact she was dressed in a simple yellow shirt and a pair pyjama pants she had most likely only gotten up when she heard the commotion, she took in the sight of her distraught older sister and her older sister who was sitting on the floor in shock and then sighed heavily.

Paige to the rescue again.

First she walked over to Phoebe and helped her to her feet and then walked over to her eldest half sister and began to rub her back, talking to Piper when she was in this state wasn't going to achieve anything so the best thing she could do now was calm her down and then talk to her.

After a few minutes the sobs began to quieten and they became nothing more that a few chocked hiccups and even those only became a few whimpers. Paige tilted Piper's head up and looked into her sister's bloodshot eyes. "Are you ready to tell us what's wrong?" She said gently.

"I'm a monster." Piper whispered brokenly, why didn't they understand?

"That isn't telling me what's wrong." Paige said as she sat down on the stool next to her sister and gently held her by her arms. "Tell me what's wrong, why are you a monster? What have you done between now and last night that's so bad?"

"The picture, Leo's picture. I destroyed it." Piper said as tear continued to silently roll down her red cheeks. "I blew it up without even thinking about it."

"Is that what this is all about?" Phoebe said with a sigh of disbelief, Piper wasn't the sort to get herself eaten up about something this small. Leo probably just gotten upset and when to get some air. "Piper that's nothing, it's not a big deal and it certainly is not worth this performance."

"It was his mother's, she was sick and she died but before she did she gave him that picture. When Leo died and became a whitelighter he kept that picture to always remind himself who was when he was a human, and I destroyed it." Piper sobbed harshly. "And that's why I'm a monster."

Paige and Pheobe were both struck dumb as they both processed what they heard, this was clearly more serious than either of them had first thought.

"But Piper." Phoebe began as she approached her sister and rested her hand on her older sister's shoulder. "You were under a spell, it wasn't your fault."

"It was a spell I cast Phoebe! And it wasn't a cruelty spell it was a fearless one! Do you know how many times I've thought about blowing up that picture and the only reason I didn't was because I was worried about how Leo and you both would think of me!?" Piper shouted and suddenly her face twisted and she gagged.

Paige realising what was about to happen orbed a bucket into her arms and held under her sister's head as she vomited into it, it was mostly bile from what Paige could. Once Piper had stopped being sick and her coughing fit had eased off she placed the bucket down on the ground and took her sister's hand. "Calm down, this isn't good for the baby."

Piper's maternal instinct took over and she nodded and took deep breathes to calm herself, she had already driven Leo away, she wasn't going to hurt her baby by being selfish.

"Now. Keep calm as I ask this Piper but where is Leo?" Paige asked.

"He left last night. He said he needed to be alone." Piper said quietly, she didn't want to think about how she had driven her husband away.

"Well we need to call him back here so he can fix this." Phoebe said and both Piper and Paige turned to look at their sister disbelievingly.

"What?" Paige breathed.

"Well yeah! Look at how upset he made Piper! I'm sorry about the picture and Piper shouldn't have blown it up but he didn't have the right to make her this upset, she's pregnant and he left her and what's been a pretty stressful day." Phoebe said as she crossed her arms.

She loved Leo but she couldn't believe he would do something like this, it was just a picture and he never said anything about it how were they supposed to know that it was important to him. And anyway what did it matter now? His family was long dead and he had them now.

"Are you insane?!" Paige shouted as she jumped out of her stool which made Phoebe back up in surprise. "You seriously think this Leo's fault!? He has every right to be angry! And we are not going to call him back, we are going to leave him alone and let him deal with this in his own time!"

"Piper talk to her! You need Leo back here and you two need to talk this through!" Phoebe shouted. "It's just like I wrote in one of my column, you can't just leave things to rest you have to deal with your problems head on and-

"Can you please stop making everything about your damn column! You've already got a damn advertising board!" Paige shouted and Piper realised that it was time for her to stop feeling sorry for herself and take control of the situation before her sisters came to blows.

"All right both of you enough!" Piper shouted and both of her little sisters turned to face her, when Piper Halliwell yelled you paid attention. "Phoebe, Paige is right. I did something very bad to Leo and he needs time on his own to forgive me when he's ready. We are not going to force him to come back to apologise to me when I have no right to expect an apology, especially when I am the one who did something wrong."

Phoebe was clearly unhappy with this but didn't say anything she simply sighed and left the room with a mutter of how she was late to work. Paige looked at her sister and nodded and then left the room, probably to go back to bed.

Piper sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, life had to go on and until Leo was ready to forgive her and come back she would have to keep going on.

And so with a deep breath she left the kitchen and went upstairs to go in the shower, she had work that couldn't wait at the club.

She just had to hope that Leo would forgive her soon.

* * *

Leo sighed heavily as he watched the cars down on the bridge quickly zip by, ever since he had become a whitelighter he had loved coming to the top of the bridge. There was a special enchantment that meant that no mortal could see them unless they were really looking hard.

Being at the top of the bridge always made him calm, it was as if all of his problems were a million miles away and he could just forget about them up here. But now it didn't seem to be working like it usually did, his problems were still burning away in the forefront of his mind and every time he tried to forget about it for even a second it came back with more furiousness than ever before.

A part of him still couldn't believe that Piper had done it, when he thought of Piper he always thought of her as the most wonderful person in the world, kind and gentle and caring and strong. He wasn't blind as to think that Piper was perfect by any means and he knew that she could be cruel but never needlessly.

The moment of her destroying the picture played in his head over and over again, he knew that Piper never asked about it but that was fine with him as he never asked about any of her pictures that she hung up but when she flung out her hands and the picture exploded, sending shreds of paper and a dozen fragments of the wooden frame flying everywhere he felt his heart shatter into just as many pieces.

He still remembered the day his mother had given him the picture, he had just turned eighteen and his mother was to sick at that point to leave her room so he and his brothers and his sisters had gone up to see, even now he could still smell his mother's perfume.

She handed him the wrapped frame, the brown package looking so much larger in her delicate pale hands and he took it quickly because as he remembered it took a great deal effort for her to even sit up in bed anymore let alone holding something.

He had gently unwrapped the paper and smiled at the picture, to be honest he didn't like the picture either but he wasn't upset because he liked the picture and Piper destroyed it, he was upset because Piper destroyed the last real link he had left to his last life.

And as much as Leo wished he could he didn't see how he would ever be able to forgive Piper for it, how could he raise a child with her if he couldn't forgive her for what he did?

He was brought out of his troubled thoughts when he heard the sound of orbing, he sighed and turned his head and then raised an eyebrow at what he saw. He had been expecting it to be Paige, sent to bring him home but it wasn't her.

It was Sandra.

"Hello Leo." The elder said with a warm smile and Leo couldn't help but return it, Sandra had been one of his mentors when he had first been starting out of as a whitelighter. She had been the one who taught him how best to deal with his charges, not to order them about and demand their respect but to show them compassion and empathy, to earn their respect.

"Hello Sandra, it's good to see you." Leo said as he stood up. "Is there anything I can help you with, wise elder?"

"I am afraid that you and I need to talk about what's happening between you and your wife Leo, the council is...concerned." Sandra said but going by the tone of her voice and the look on her face "Concerned" was probably the mildest way she could put it. "You've been sitting here all night and ignoring your wife's calls."

"I just needed sometime on my own Sandra, Piper wasn't in danger if she was I would've orbed back right away. And with the baby being able to heal her, she's in less danger now than ever before." Leo pointed out but it was clear that Sandra didn't believe him.

"Leo. Do you remember the terms of our deal when it came to you and Piper marrying?" Sandra asked before she continued to speak, not giving Leo a chance to answer. "The deal was that we would not interfere in your marriage if you both could prove that your marriage wouldn't inter with your jobs, at the moment it is interfering with your jobs."

"It's not interfering with-!" Leo began but he stopped talking when Sandra raised a hand.

"It is Leo, you are her whitelighter first. When she calls. You go. That's how it works, there is already debate in the heavens about breaking up your marriage, it's only me and Zola that are fighting on your side. If you still want to be with Piper than you need to prove that it isn't interfering." Sandra said before she took a long look at Leo. "You do still want to be with her, don't you Leo?"

"Of course I do!" Leo shouted before he winced at the tone he took with an elder. "I'm sorry, I do want to be with her. I love her and I love our child, more than anything but I'm just...so angry."

"You don't have to forgive her Leo, but if you do not do your duty soon then you won't be able to go back to her at all." Sandra sighed. "I have to go, I wish you luck." And with that Sandra orbed away.

Leo sighed heavily and looked back down at the cars.

And after a moment, Leo orbed away.

End of Chapter Two

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